Bond No More

Image credit: Pierce Brosnan: Ronald Asadorian/splashnews.com/NewsCom

DOUBLE UH-OH Brosnan says Bond is in his past, though he'll ''look back affectionately'' on those years

Pierce Brosnan appears to be turning in his license to kill. ''That's it,'' says the actor otherwise known as Bond, James Bond. ''I've said all I've got to say on the world of James Bond.''

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the 51-year-old Irish-born star answers the question that's plagued millions of 007 fans since his last mission on her majesty's secret service, 2002's ''Die Another Day'': Will he return for his fifth James Bond movie or not? ''Bond is another lifetime,'' he says, ''behind me.''

Unless Brosnan's statement is a negotiating ploy -- Sean Connery, for example, quit for a whole movie before being lured back for bigger bucks -- England-based Eon productions, which produces the Bond flicks, must find another star to carry 007's Walther PPK in the as-yet-untitled 21st Bond movie, which is already scheduled to be released on Nov. 18, 2005. Speculation surrounds Brits Clive Owen, Ioan Gruffudd, Colin Firth, Hugh Grant, Gerard Butler, Jude Law, and Ewan McGregor, as well as Aussies Hugh Jackman, Heath Ledger, and Eric Bana.

For Brosnan, playing James Bond will always be a fond memory. ''We went out on a high,'' he says, ''and I look back affectionately at that time and doing those four movies. But I've said all I gotta say on it.''